April 10, 2007

• Back in the Saddle Again

  I intended to blog more like a week ago, but I came home from Chicago with a cold and am just now feeling back to my normal self (with normal being a relevant term!  ). It probably didn't help that the day I returned it was 19 degrees F with the wind chill and there was snow flurries as I tried to pump gas into my rental car! By the way, my rental car reminded me of warweasel! I was given a black Ford Mustang convertible with only 700 miles on it. I think his version of a Mustang is much nicer than mine was, but it did make me think of him!

  

  Anyhow, I got to see my dad and his wife Natalie, and their two dogs. We had a nice lunch at a Mexican place lace and dad showed me some of the work he is now doing with fused glass. Here are a few pics of my dad and his dogs, he looks damn good for someone who should have died just over a year ago from a torn aorta!

  

  

  Tuesday through Thursday I took the roombox class along with 14 other people. It was challenging and I learned a lot, but I am pretty happy with the end result.The coolest part was learning a faux painting technique that made the ceiling boards look like knotty pine. I think the result is very believable.

  Thursday night I joined my friend Daryl at a Bull's basketball game in downtown Chicago. It was a great game, I even managed to catch a t-shirt that they shoot into the stands durning time outs! That must have done the magic, because despite it being a super close game, the Bulls did win!

  Friday I learned to make a Shaker style chest of drawers. The best part of that was learning to use a wood plane, which I had never tried before. Believe it or not, even though we worked on tiny pieces, we used a full size plane and it made such accurate, straight edges, it was really amazing, much better than trying to sand them smooth and even!

  I hope to have photos in the next couple days of my work. Saturday I want to the show sales and had lots of fun, finding all sorts of goodies. I mainly shopped to find things for this new room box I made, as well as a miniature chocolate shop I am making. I found some mini chocolate goodies that look so real and so good you get hungry just looking at them!

  My sister Beth flew home with me and now we are focused on spoiling her rotten in honor of her 40th birthday this month. The first few days have not been much more than watching movies, doing needlework and reading books, due to me being ill, but I think that has been fine with her.

  Today I have been feeling better, so we went out and picked out some patio furniture to finish up the backyard. We found a nice set and it is supposed to be delivered on Friday, so we hope to do a christening BBQ that night to celebrate.

  Our Easter was quiet, but nice. The girls were at Gene's house that day, so we gave them Easter baskets that night when they came back home. Then we saved Easter dinner for Monday, so they could enjoy it as well. Joe cooked the whole thing!! We had wonderful leg of lamb with rosemary and garlic, it was cooked over thin sliced potatoes so the lamb juices dripped down into the potatoes! Oh my gosh it was good!

  Unfortunately, now Joe seems to be getting my cold, just as I am getting better. We hope to visit Legoland on Thursday, but Joe will stay home if not up to it. Sunday, I want to take Beth to the annual Ren Faire, while the kids are with Gene. Then we will take the kids on a later weekend. Doing the faire is very different just as adults, vs. having kids along. Both are fun days, but very different activities.

  And next week, once the kids are back in school, I plan to do some major Beth pampering, taking her to the cool yarn store, Black Sheep and also out for a river rock massage!! *swoon*

  Oh and Becca won a jelly bean counting contest at the grocery store! She was very clever and counted how many beans were on the top layer, then how many layers there were and multiplied for her guess. She wouldn't have managed math like that a year ago! I think she is getting a gift certificate or something, I need to take her over to the store to pick it up!

  Otherwise, I am trying to catch up on bills, housekeeping, etc. now that I am not so ill and have a bit more energy. I hope everyone is well and had a nice spring holiday! Stay tune for a blog with lots of pics next! 

  • 8:57 pm
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